How to treat spleen deficiency diarrhea in cattle and horses? The clever use of Shenling Baizhu Tang

Shenling Baizhu San comes from the Taiping Huimin Hejiju Fang (Prescriptions of the Bureau of Taiping People's Welfare Pharmacy), and mainly treats weakness of the spleen and stomach, indigestion, emaciation, weakness of the limbs, diarrhea, and other conditions. In many years of veterinary clinical practice, this formula has been modified and adapted to treat spleen deficiency diarrhea in cattle and horses (including indigestion and gastrointestinal catarrh) as well as constipation, enteritis, and secondary complications of conditions such as ruminal atony, achieving good therapeutic results. It is introduced below.

1. Exploration of causes

The causes leading to spleen deficiency diarrhea are mainly dysfunction of the spleen and stomach. The stomach is the sea of water and grain, and the spleen governs the transportation and transformation of essential substances; if the spleen and stomach are affected by disease, this impairs the digestion and absorption of water, grain, grass, and feed, causing the clear and turbid to fail to be separated, mixing together and descending, all moving into the large intestine, thus forming diarrhea. From an analysis of the causes in 228 cases, the main aspects are as follows.

(1) Exploration of causes

Invasion by cold-dampness pathogens, with dampness being the most capable of causing diarrhea. The spleen prefers dryness and dislikes dampness; when dampness is excessive, diarrhea occurs. Due to cold weather, livestock drinking excessive cold water or eating excessive frozen forage, cold-dampness damages the spleen and stomach, resulting in cold diarrhea.

(2) Due to improper feeding and work management, livestock being subjected to prolonged excessive labor, insufficient forage, malnutrition, disharmony of spleen qi, and insufficiency of yang qi, leading to stomach cold, inability to decompose and ripen water, grain, grass, and feed, causing diarrhea.

(3) Insufficient kidney yang, decline of the fire of the vital gate, emaciation of the animal body, decline of digestive function, water, grain, grass, and feed cannot be decomposed and ripened, causing diarrhea. In addition, the ancients also had the saying that "the kidney is the gate of the stomach." When kidney yang is insufficient, the gate is not secure, and thus the stool discharges downward. As Zhang Jingyue said: "The kidney is the gate of the stomach, opening at the two yin orifices, therefore the opening and closing of both urine and stool are governed by the kidney. Now when yang qi in the kidney is insufficient, the fire of the vital gate declines; and when yang cold is extremely abundant, it causes unceasing diarrhea."

(4) Due to stagnation of old feces in the gastrointestinal tract, repeated use of bitter-cold methods to attack and purge accumulated matter, damaging spleen yang, causing diarrhea.

2. Main symptoms

The affected animal shows listlessness and depression, emaciation, rough and erect coat, coldness of the nasal mirror, base of the ears, base of the horns, and lower parts of the limbs, decreased or absent appetite, hyperactive bowel sounds, increased frequency of defecation, thin stool, or even diarrhea, like water with foam, coarse and long fecal residue, sometimes mixed with undigested feed, feces without foul odor, clear and scanty urine, excessive oral fluids, low oral temperature, pale-blue oral color, and deep, slow pulse. Some have sunken eye sockets, or edema under the abdomen and limbs, or arched back with tucked tail.

3. Treatment

Treatment principle: strengthen the spleen and dry dampness, promote diuresis and stop diarrhea.

Formula: Modified Shenling Baizhu Tang: Codonopsis 45 g, Poria 60 g, Atractylodes macrocephala 45 g, Hyacinth bean 120 g, Chinese yam 90 g, Coix seed 60 g, Amomum fruit 20 g, honey-fried licorice 30 g, pomegranate peel 60 g, hearth soil 250 g. Decoct twice, administer the warm decoction in one dose, once daily.

Formula analysis: In the formula, Sijunzi Tang tonifies qi and strengthens the spleen; Chinese yam, Coix seed, and hyacinth bean strengthen the spleen and dry dampness; hearth soil warms the spleen and stops diarrhea; pomegranate peel is sour and astringent to stop diarrhea; Amomum fruit regulates qi and resolves stagnation. There is both tonification and dispersion, jointly achieving the effects of tonifying qi and strengthening the spleen, drying dampness and stopping diarrhea, with tonification that does not cause stagnation.

Modifications: If middle yang is debilitated and cold qi is abundant internally, then watery diarrhea occurs, with rumbling in the abdomen, coarse and long fecal residue; if the pulse is deep and slow, add prepared aconite, dried ginger, and cinnamon as appropriate; if the fire of the vital gate declines, then the extremities are cold, the pulse is faint and on the verge of ceasing, and the abdomen is distended, add psoralea, evodia, and schisandra as appropriate; if urination is difficult, with edema under the abdomen and in the limbs, add Polyporus and Plantago seed as appropriate.

4. Summary and experience

(4) The author believes, based on many years of veterinary clinical practice, that for livestock showing symptoms such as decreased appetite, diarrhea, coarse and long fecal residue, emaciation, hyperactive bowel sounds, and pale-blue oral color, treatment with Baizhu Tang for spleen deficiency diarrhea in cattle and horses was used in 228 cases, including 148 yellow cattle, 34 water buffalo, and 46 horses, with a total cure rate of over 90%.

(2) From the analysis of causes, spleen deficiency diarrhea can be caused by constitutional weakness of the spleen and stomach, or can be triggered by kidney yang deficiency, insufficiency of true fire unable to assist the spleen, or invasion by cold-dampness pathogens. From the symptoms, as long as there is reverse coldness of the limbs, deep and slow pulse or faint pulse on the verge of ceasing, and pale-blue oral color, prepared aconite, dried ginger, and cinnamon can all be added to warm the middle and restore yang; if diarrhea is relatively severe, hearth soil, pomegranate peel, black plum, and chebula fruit can be appropriately added to astringe with sourness and stop diarrhea, so that water-dampness can be dispersed and separated, and diarrhea will naturally be stopped. Therefore, by grasping the main symptoms and main causes, and considering the relationships among the zang-fu organs and the mutual reinforcement compatibility of medicinals, one can apply this flexibly.